Biological treatment remains the most efficient way to both breakdown dissolved organic compounds and nitrogen. Biological treatment is the most economical way to treat wastewater streams with high organic loads as they use microorganisms to break down organic matter found in waste water and energy recovery technologies using biometabolism such as methane fermentation. Here are bugs in operation that breakdown dissolved organic compounds. Therefore sufficient oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus and trace compounds are required.Sludge separation can be accomplished either by clarifiers or membrane systems. Aerobic systems can achieve stringent discharge limits while producing high volumes of sludge. Anaerobic systems work well as pretreatment for concentrated streams and convert dissolved organic compounds into valuable biogas but are quite sensitive. Biologically activated filtration is used to remove BOD and COD and reduce nitrogen in waste water.
The space requirement is more than 50% less compared to conventional activated sludge systems. The system is fully automatic in operation. For denitrification a carbon source must be dosed while aeration is stopped. Biologically activated filtration uses sessile microorganisms to remove organic compounds(BOD,COD) and nitrogen from wastewater. Since nutrients are normally present in water only air needs to be injected to provide oxygen.
